Tito Health Scare

The truly old man in our house Tito has had some health concerns over the last few weeks. Don't be alarmed though, he's OK. Those of you who have had the (privilege? distinction? bad luck?) of meeting him know that Tito is a fighter, he will certainly not be going out like no sucker chump.

Tito had a seizure a week and a half ago, right in front of Alycia and I, and while it only lasted 20 seconds or so, it was pretty alarming. Even though he'd been to the vet just a month before and gotten a clean bill of health, he'll be 17 years old this Summer, so he's no Spring chicken. He probably would very much enjoy a tasty spring chicken though.

We called a different vet and brought him in for a full heart and respiratory function workup. He's also had an odd cough for the last month that has steadily grown worse. The diagnosis was an enlarged left side of his heart which was pressing on his bronchi, causing the cough. Congestive heart failure couldn't be definitively ruled in or out, but it is likely and he's going to start on some heart medication and a bronchi-dilator to try to encourage his airway to open more.

We're going to watch and monitor him carefully over the next few weeks and ensure that the side effects of the medication aren't too harsh. As for the seizure? We still don't know why that happened. As the vet said "dogs his age don't suddenly develop epilepsy", so we know that a seizure isn't a good sign. But he hasn't had any since and we're hopeful that was a one time occurrence. And Tito is still eating, drinking, going on walks, peeing on stuff in the yard, and viciously snarling at anything that moves, so he's OK for now. This photo of Alycia and Tito is from last Fall..

If you're reading this and worrying about poor Tito, don't fret, he's fine. Seriously, he's fine. Except for his cough he looks and acts the same as he always has. Alycia is doing fairly well with this whole business too. Tito has been part of her life for more than 15 years and she's given him the best life a dog could ask for. As I mentioned before, Tito is a fighter, he certainly isn't going to let something like heart or breathing problems stop him from enjoying his twilight years.

First Day of Spring and Spring Cleaning

Hooray, it's the first day of Spring today! That doesn't mean a whole lot to us here in North Dakota, other than portending the likelihood of warmer temperatures eventually. It was above freezing all weekend and the backyard mud pit drained a little bit, but still has a long way to go before it's a playable surface.

We took the opportunity over the weekend to get a jump start on our Spring cleaning. The first order of business was to give all the dog blankets, bed covers, etc. a cycle through the washing machine.

It may be a blurry photo from Alycia's iphone, but you get the idea. Shadowfax did her best to get us to drop the load of fresh-out-of-the-dryer dog items on the ground so she could snuggle up with them. It looks pretty cozy.  

New Jolly Ball Rope

We recently lost the full functionality of our Jolly Ball toy, the rope portion at least. The rope runs through the middle of the Jolly Ball and makes it a much more interactive toy to play with. After several months of play, Shadowfax had pretty well shredded the rope and we just had a plastic ball left.

We stopped by our local independent pet shop Treat Play Love (website here) and inquired about a new Jolly Ball. Kelly, the owner of Treat Play Love though happily supplied us a new rope for our old Jolly Ball. She had some extra ropes gathering dust in her shop, so she passed on a few lengths of rope to us for free.

 

Shaak Ti loved her new toy, which was just a plain rope. She enjoys sitting quietly and trying to turn a rope into a pile of string.

Shadowfax had grown a little bored with the rope-less version of the Jolly Ball. But with the new rope running through it, she was reinvigorated and we played with the Jolly Ball for nearly an hour. 

Old Guys Rule

As part of a general continuing series of "Stuff I meant to post earlier in the year, but got sidetracked", here are some pictures of your intrepid blogger and my awesome volleyball companion Tom. This same photo also represents the Grand Forks, North Dakota 2-Person Sand league champions.  We may look like an amalgam of knee braces, gray hair and receding hairlines (conveniently hidden with a hat), but the reality is we're a fearsome flurry of swear words and crafty old-man volleyballness. 

Previous finishes have included a couple of second places, and third and fourth a few other times, but this was our first championship.  Without revealing too much embarrassing information, I'll say that I'm no longer a spring chicken and Tom easily has several years on me, but over the course of the season we beat multiple other teams that were literally half our age.  As I get older there's some special joy in such things.